Fun Facts Friday

10 People Who Were Fired Before They Became Filthy Rich

Lose your job? Take heart. Some of the most successful people in the world have also been let go.

Walt Disney's newspaper editor told the aspiring cartoonist he wasn't creative enough.
In 1919, Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star. According to his editor, he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas." That wasn't the last of his failures. Disney then acquired Laugh-O-Gram, an animation studio he later drove into bankruptcy. Finally, he decided to set his sights on a more profitable area: Hollywood. He and his brother moved to California and started producing a successful cartoon series.


JK Rowling spent too much time at work brainstorming story ideas.
JK Rowling worked as a secretary for the London office of Amnesty International, but she dreamed of being a writer. She secretly wrote stories on her work computer and daydreamed about a teenage wizard named Harry Potter. Her employers finally got fed up and gave her the boot. Her severance check helped support her over the next few years, when she finally decided to focus on writing. Today, she's the multi-billionaire author of one of the most successful book series of all time.

Mayor Bloomberg used his severance check to start his own company.Now he's 18th richest person in the country.
Michael Bloomberg was a partner at Salomon Brothers, an investment bank. In 1998, they were bought out by the company that eventually became Citigroup. Bloomberg was let go, but not before receiving a hefty severance check. He used that money to start his own financial services company. Today, he's the country's 18th richest person and, of course, the mayor of New York City.


Anna Wintour says that everyone should lose his or her job at some point.
Vogue Editor Anna Wintour's started her career in New York as a junior fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar. She made waves for her innovative shoots, but editor Tony Mazalla thought they were a little too edgy. She got canned after a mere 9 months. Getting fired was a great learning experience and never held back her style. "I recommend that you all get fired," she told fashion students. Shortly after leaving Harper's, she became a fashion editor at Viva.


Madonna lost her job at Dunkin Donuts for squirting jelly filling all over customers.
When Madonna dropped out of college and moved to New York to find fame, she had a rough start. Strapped for cash, she took a job at Dunkin' Donuts in Times Square. She didn't even last a day. After squirting jelly filling all over a customer, her managers gave her the boot. The Material Girl went through several fast food and waitressing jobs before she was introduced to the city's punk rock music scene in 1979. These low-paying gigs were necessary at first, but Madonna knew she was meant to be a star.


A Baltimore TV producer told Oprah that she was "unfit for television news"
Evening news reporter Oprah Winfrey couldn't help but get emotionally invested in her stories. The producer of Baltimore's WJZ-TV got fed up and pulled her off the air. As a consolation, he offered her a role on a daytime TV show. Winfrey was initially heartbroken. At the time, daytime TV was a huge step down from the evening news. Her sadness quickly faded as the show, People Are Talking, became a hit. That success help Oprah find her true calling as a talk show host.


Jerry Seinfeld didn't know he was fired until he showed up for a read-through and his part was missing from the script.
Jerry Seinfeld had a small role on the sitcom Benson, but the producers didn't like the way he was playing the part. They fired him after only three episodes. Unfortunately, no one bothered to tell Seinfeld he'd been cut. He showed up for a read-through one day and found his part was missing. He was humiliated, but he went right back to performing at comedy clubs. After one performance, a talent scout for the Tonight Show was in the audience. Seinfeld landed a gig on the show and his career immediately took off.


The manager of the Grand Ole Opry told Elvis he was better off driving trucks.
Elvis may be the king of rock 'n' roll but he hit some major setbacks on his way to the top. After one performance at Nashville's Grand Ole Opry, the concert hall's manager told the singer he was better off returning to Memphis and his old career, driving trucks. Luckily for modern music, he didn't. Presley continued to book shows in the area and eventually landed a spot on a tour with Hank Snow, the then biggest star in country music.


Thomas Edison secretly conducted experiments in his office at Western Union.
Until one night in 1867, he spilled some acid that ate through his entire floor. He got canned and decided to pursue inventing full-time. Edison received his first patent two years later, for the electric vote recorder.


Ever heard of Handy Dan? It's the home-improvement chain that fired Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank right before they started Home Depot. It shut down in 1989.
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were working for Handy Dan, an home-improvement chain, when a corporate raider fired both of them. The two men decided to start their own home-improvement store based on an idea they'd had while at Handy Dan: an entire store of discounts. They called it Home Depot. In less than a decade, they'd opened over 100 stores and made over $2.7 billion in sales.

For More, Go to: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-people-who-were-fired-before-they-became-filthy-rich-2011-4?op=1#ixzz1LfmV33MM